#ra

She had come to accept, deeply, and with certitude, that she had been born into a world, a life, that would not let her be whole. ↗

— Guy Gavriel Kay

#personal-journeys #life

Getting all emotionally wrapped up in made-up people's lives gives me a chance to take a break from my own life [...]. ↗

— Arlaina Tibensky

#books #characters #emotions #reading #life

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. ↗

— Isaac Asimov

#ignorance #life

Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness? ↗

— Alain de Botton

#life #madness #morality #world #life

Poise is an unseen power, And this unseen power is always ready To come to the aid of the outer action. ↗

— Sri Chinmoy

#inspirational

The passion to teach, to share deeply experienced “lessons from life,” is embedded in all literature. ↗

— Vera B. Williams

#teaching #life

...I've been ripped off, lied to, slandered, gossiped about slapped, falsely accused, and had my truths not believed. I've had my heart broken, had my pride stomped on, witnessed unforgivable acts, and heard words that hurt so much I withed that they would not replay in my head, but they did. In all these moments--some tear-soaked, some life-defining, but all character-building moments--I have felt vulnerable. And I believe these feelings of vulnerability--when a person feels scared and alone and overwhelmed and pissed off, wen the sting of unfairness bites deep--while miserable to live through, are the basis for writing compelling fiction. ↗

— Jessica Page Morrell

#vulnerablity #life

Inasmuch as often in this life greater rewards are offered for vice than for virtue, few people would prefer the right to the useful, were they restreined neither by the fear of God nor the expectation of another life ... ↗

— René Descartes

#god #morality #vice #virtue #life

I went to interview some of these early Jewish colonial zealots—written off in those days as mere 'fringe' elements—and found that they called themselves Gush Emunim or—it sounded just as bad in English—'The Bloc of the Faithful.' Why not just say 'Party of God' and have done with it? At least they didn't have the nerve to say that they stole other people's land because their own home in Poland or Belarus had been taken from them. They said they took the land because god had given it to them from time immemorial. In the noisome town of Hebron, where all of life is focused on a supposedly sacred boneyard in a dank local cave, one of the world's less pretty sights is that of supposed yeshivah students toting submachine guns and humbling the Arab inhabitants. When I asked one of these charmers where he got his legal authority to be a squatter, he flung his hand, index finger outstretched, toward the sky. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#belarus #colonialism #god #guns #gush-emunim

I love to see those paragliders weaving softly around Moon Point, their legs floating above you in the air. When they drift in for a landing, their feet touch the ground and they trot forward from the continued motion of the glider, which billows down like a setting sun. I never get tired of watching them and I've seen them thousands of times. I always wondered what that kind of freedom would feel like. ↗

— Deb Caletti

#freedom #paraglider #sun #freedom